Scotty Slavens and his son Isaac, 10, fish in the pond at Nelson Park on Monday. The Lebanon City Council agreed to sell the park to White River Marine Group, whose Tracker boats sit in storage in the background, in a special meeting June 3, prompting protest from some residents.(Photo: Austin Huguelet/News-Leader)

The city has other parks — including one right down the street. But none has a pine stand that makes him feel like he’s in the middle of nowhere in the middle of town.

And nowhere else is there a public pond where his son and other kids can fish for free without hopping on the interstate.

“Basically, it’s like an oasis in the middle of a concrete jungle,” he said.

But things at Nelson Park are set to change soon.

In a meeting last week, the Lebanon City Council approved a $2.5 million deal selling the 50-year-old, 30-acre park to White River Marine Group, the boatmaking subsidiary of Bass Pro Shops and the city's largest employer.

The company already surrounds much of the park with a manufacturing facility to the east and fields of Tracker boats in storage to the south and west. And a company spokesman said Tuesday the new land will be used for “team member parking and other long-term growth plans.”

It is not clear what exactly will become of the park, the pine stand or the pond, the last of which may be needed for flood control in a flood-prone area.

Mayor Jared Carr said Tuesday the city anticipates duplicating the park’s offerings elsewhere in the city.

From the city’s perspective, that’s not a bad thing. A chipper news release issued the day after the vote noted the deal also calls for Tracker to buy land for a new park and sports complex off Interstate 44 near Lebanon Middle School — and away from the Tracker facilities and gravel lots that clash with the natural landscape of the park.

Like the old one, the new Nelson Park will have four new ballfields, and Parks Director John Shelton said they would be better suited to hosting traveling baseball teams and tournaments — and the revenue they can bring.

“The hope is that we can become a site for more competitive baseball and bring more people to town,” he said.

In the release, City Administrator Michael Schumacher added that the new park would boast access to the state’s Coleman Memorial Conservation Area trails, “making the park experience at over 100 acres.”

But while officials tout progress, Donovan and others are stuck feeling betrayal.

On Monday night, when the city council had its first regular meeting since voting to sell the park, he and several others stepped up to the podium during the public comment period and cried foul on the decision.

Several said they didn’t know about the vote until shortly before or after it happened.

The council approved the deal in a special meeting, which requires just 24 hours notice to the public, rather than a regularly scheduled meeting that generally convenes every other week.

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Judith Smith, who owns rental properties near Nelson Park, speaks at a Lebanon City Council meeting on Monday. Smith scolded the council members for selling the park to White River Marine Group in a closed meeting June 3.(Photo: Austin Huguelet/News-Leader)

Judith Smith, who owns several rental properties in the neighborhood north of Nelson Park, said residents in the area learned about the vote in the local newspaper the day afterward.

“I feel like you have railroaded us,” she said.

Danielle Freeman, who said she’s related to the Nelsons who originally donated the parkland to the city decades ago, said the council was “picking off” her family’s heritage.

She also emphasized the impact on her young son, who she said has spent much of his childhood playing at the park and cried when she broke the news of the sale.

“He asked me with tears in his eyes if he had enough money in his piggy bank to purchase the park back so he wouldn't have to lose it,” she said. “These decisions you make don't just affect you, don't just affect me, they affect our children.”

And Donovan, for his part, told council members they're effectively “paving over” the biggest reason he moved to Lebanon from San Diego.

The council had its defenders, too.

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Richard Gilbert speaks at the Lebanon City Council meeting on Monday. Gilbert told council members he supported their decision to sell Nelson Park to boatmaker White River Marine Group for business expansion.(Photo: Austin Huguelet/News-Leader)

Richard Gilbert, who described himself as someone always happy to let public officials know when they’ve done wrong, told council members they were doing just fine.

He then went after the critics, saying that they should get more involved if they want to have a voice in decisions.

“They don't follow the council meetings, so they're not aware,” he said. “That's no one's fault but their own.”

And Bruce Owen, who said his grandparents were the Nelsons who originally donated the land back in the 1960s, told those gathered that the purchase meant progress as well as pain.

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Bruce Owen, who said his grandparents donated Nelson Park to the city decades ago, speaks at a Lebanon City Council meeting on Monday. Owen told council members he supported their decision to sell the parkland to boatmaker White River Marine Group to allow for business expansion.(Photo: Austin Huguelet/News-Leader)

"I wish there was an easy way to do things, but it's progress," he said. "People need the jobs. Tracker employs 1,300 people. That's almost 10 percent of the population of Lebanon."

But another speaker, John Thomas, said the council should also take into account “people on disability, fixed incomes, unable to work, that go to that park because it is local and is a place where they can go fish.”

“I have been there myself,” he said, “and that fish has fed my family for a weekend.”

In an interview after the meeting, Mayor Carr acknowledged that the city could have given residents more information about the sale before voting to approve it. But he said that making more information public before arranging to buy the land for the new park could have led to the price going up.

“We had the best interest of the city in all of our hearts,” he said.

He also touted the deal as one that accommodates a key employer and said the city has plans to eventually open a new public pond at another park in the northwest part of the city.

It’s not clear how much that will mean to opposing residents. Some continued to air their frustrations on Facebook Tuesday.

Donovan said he’s going to take Gilbert’s advice.

“I’m going to run for mayor,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m tired of what’s going on.”

At the pond Monday night, where Scotty Slavens was fishing with his son, Isaac, 10, things were a bit calmer.

Between casts for crappie, he told a reporter he doubted it would have made any difference if nearby residents like him had gotten to talk before a council vote.

“I think it was already a done deal before they had the meeting,” he said.

He acknowledged the deal might mean he wouldn’t be able to take his son to fish much longer at the pond.

“But apparently they’re supposed to be building another park and they’re supposed to build another pond,” he said. “So we’ll see.”